.^^^^. 















. ./x- 








%^^^ 







.^' 



5^^^. 











^^-n*^ 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN AN APOSTLE 
OF TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 



Base Slanders Refuted by 
SAMUEL WILSON 

Regular as the seasons, with the approach of February- 
twelfth the liquor press besmirches the fair name and fame 
of Abraham Lincoln by claiming him as one of their body 
and soul destroying craft. The current number of Justice, 
ofificial organ of New Jersey liquor dealers, repeats the 
slander, and prints the portrait of the Great Emancipator 
as a "Friend of the Liquor Traffic." Under this title ap- 
pears what purports to be a reproduction of a license to 
keep a tavern, issued March 6, 1833, to William F. Berry, 
in the name of Berry and Lincoln. 

It makes no diflference to these defamers that all through 
his life Lincoln was a total abstainer and consistent enemy 
of drink and the drink traffic; they try to hitch their dirty 
wagon to his star, and thus hope to borrow some re- 
spectability from his greatness and virtue. 

Among America's greatest Sons there is none with a 
more pronounced and consistent anti-liquor record than 
Abraham Lincoln; and it is due to his name that it be 
defended against defamation by the slanders of base and 
greedy interests. 

The incident of the "tavern" license referred to has 
been widely discussed. The date of this alleged license is 
1833, when Lincoln was twenty-four years old, a raw country 
boy. He was persuaded into a partnership with another 
young man named Berry, and together they bought out 
a small country store. In such stores at that date it was a 
common practice to carry whisky in stock the same as 
molasses or vinegar, but there is no evidence that Lincoln 
ever -sold or served liquor in the place, or favored its sale. 

On the other hand, there is evidence that when Berry 
took out this license it was contrary to Lincoln's wishes, 
and was the cause of breaking the partnership. 

Leonard Sweet, a Chicago lawyer, was an intimate per- 
sonal friend of Lincoln, and in a volume entitled "Remin- 
iscenses of Abraham Lincoln," he writes as follows of 
this incident: 




A difference, however, soon arose between iTTnTahd' the 
old proprietor, the present partner of Lincoln, in reference 
to the introduction of whisky into the establishment. The 
partner insisted that, on the principle that honey catches 
flies a barrel of whisky in the store would invite custom, 
and their sales would increase; while Lincoln, who never liked 
liquor, opposed the innovation. He told me not more than 
a year before he was elected President that he had never 
tasted liquor in his life. "What!" I said, "do you mean to 
say you never tasted it?" "Yes; I never tasted it." The 
result was that a bargain was made by which Lincoln 
should retire from his partnership in the store. 

An interesting corroboration of this from Lincoln's 
own lips will be found in Nicolay and Hay's reports of the 
famous debates with Douglas. In his first speech at Ot- 
towa, Illinois, August 21, 1858, Douglas became tauntingly 
personal and referred to Lincoln's youth in these words: 

"We were both comparatively boys, and both strug- 
gling with poverty in a strange land. I was a school teacher 
in the town of Winchester, and he a flourishing "grocery 
keeper" in the town of Salem. ***** He could ruin 
more liquor than all the boys in the town together." 

In these days in Illinois, a "grocery" was a synonym 
of our modern "saloon," — as remembered by the writer, 
himself a native of Illinois. To this ill-natured taunt Lin- 
coln replied: 

"The Judge is woefully at fault about his friend Lin- 
coln being a 'grocery keeper.' I do not know that it would 
be a great sin if I had been, but he is mistaken. Lincoln 
never kept a 'grocery' anj^ where in the world." 

Even though it were true that he had sold liquor when 
a young man of twenty-four, his after life was so pro- 
nouncedly against it that none but a dishonest peri^on 
would claim him as a friend of the traffic. 

From boyhood Lincoln was an advocate of total ab- 
stinence. His first printed composition was an essay on 
Temperance, and when a lad he signed a pledge in an old 
Indiana log school house at a temperance meeting ad- 
dressed by "Old Uncle John," and years after he said to 
the speaker: 

I owe more to you than to almost any one else of whom 
I can think, for if T had not signed the pledge, with you 
in the years of youthful temptation I might have gone the 
way that the majority of my comrades have gone, which 
ends in a drunkard's life and a drunkard's grave. 

The evidence as to his total abstinence principles is 

2 

o on % 1 ^, 

•7- 1 



overwhelming, and vouched for by practically all his bio- 
graphers. He delivered a most eloquent and memorable 
address before the Washingtonian Temperance Society in 
Springfield, Illinois, on Washington's Birthday, 1842. TIk- 
full text of his speech was printed in the Sangamon Weekl\ 
Journal of March 26, 1842, and in it Lincoln used these 
prophetic v^^ords: "And when the victory shall be com- 
plete — when there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard 
on the earth — how proud the title of that Land which may 
truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both 
these revolutions, that shall have ended in that victory." 
He also uttered this bold statement which remains un- 
challengeable: "Whether or not the world would be vastly 
benefited by a total and final banishment from it of all in- 
toxicating drinks seems to me not now to be an open 
question. Three-fourths of mankind confess the affrma- 
tive with their tongues, and I believe all the rest acknowl 
edge it in their hearts." 

Lincoln referred to this speech in a letter that he wrott 
at the time to young Pickett, afterwards the famous Con- 
federate general who led the charge at Gettysburg, then 
a cadet at West Point, in these words: "I have just told the 
folk here at Springfield on this the iiith Anniversary of 
the birth of him ' whose name mightiest in the cause of 
civil liberty, still mightiest in the cause for moral refor- 
mation we mention in solemn awe, in naked deathless 
splendor, that the one victory we can ever call complete 
will be that one which proclaims that there is not one slave 
or one drunkard on the face of God's green earth. Re- 
cruit for this victory." See communication by Mrs. Pickett 
in McClure's Magazine, M'arch, 1908. 

The action of Lincoln in refusing to toast with wine 
the committee who called to notify him of his first nomina- 
tion as a candidate for the presidency, will ever be an 
inspiration to lovers of moral heroism. According to Mr. 
Charles Carlton Cofii'n, author of a "Life of Lincoln," and 
Senator Shelby M. Cullom, a number of citizens of Spring- 
field united in a request that, on this occasion, Lincoln 
put aside his usual total abstinence principles, and sug- 
gested that they be permitted to furnish the wine, but Mr. 
Lincoln courteously but firmly refused. Many versions of 
what followed have been written, but in our judgment the 
best is written by the Artist Carpenter, who painted the 



great picture, "Signing the Emancipation Proclamation," 
in his volume entitled "Six Months in the White House." 
The story of an eye-witness is as follows: 

Mr. Lincoln remarked that, as an appropriate conclu- 
sion to an interview so important and interesting he sup- 
posed good manners would require that he should furnish 
the committee something to drink; and opening a door he 
called out, "Alary! Mary!" A girl responded to the call, to 
whom Mr. Lincoln spoke in an undertone, in a few min- 
utes the maid entered bearing a large tray containing sev- 
eral glass tumblers and a large pitcher and placed it upon 
the center table. Mr. Lincoln then arose, and gravely 
addressing the distinguished gentlemen, said: "Gentlemen, 
we must pledge our mutual healths in the most healthy bev- 
erage God has given to man. It is the only beverage I have 
ever used or ever allowed in my family, and I cannot con- 
scientiously depart from it on the present occasion; it is 
pure Adam's ale from the spring," and, taking a tumbler, 
he touched it to his lips and pledged them his highest re- 
spect in a cup of cold water. 

If further confirmation were necessary we have it from 
Mr. Lincoln's own hand, in a letter dated June ii, i860, 
addressed to J. Mason Haight, which is reproduced in fac- 
simile in these columns. (See fac-simile No. i.) 

We quote as follows from his intimate associates, to 
refute the vile slanders of the liquor harpies: 

Son, Secretaries and Intimates Testify to Temperance 
Principles. 

The Hon. Robert T. Lincoln, has stated that his father 
never used liquor or tobacco in any form, and quotes the 
following "sermon" as he called it, which he preached to 
his boys: "Don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, don't 
swear, don't gamble, don't lie, don't cheat. Love your 
fellowmen and love God. Love truth, love virtues and be 
happy." 

The Hon. John Hay, who was Mr. Lincoln's private 
secretary testifies: "Mr. Lincoln was a man of extremely 
temperate habits; he made no use of either whisky or 
tobacco during all the years that I knew him." 

Ward Lamon, Lincoln's old law partner, gives inter- 
esting testimony as to Lincoln's total abstinence principles 
in these words: "How many years he was an ardent agi- 
tator against the use of intoxicating beverages, and made 
speeches far and near in favor of total abstinence. Some 
of them were printed, and of one he was not a little proud." 

4 



Senator Shelby M. CuUom, of Illinois, gives this tes- 
timony in the Chicago Record Herald of May i6, 1908: 
"Lincoln never drank, smoked, chewed tobacco or swore. 
He was a man of the most simple habits. I recall dis- 
tinctly when the Committee of Citizens, including myself, 
called at Lincoln's house after he was nominated for Presi- 
dent to talk over with him the arrangements for receiving 
the Committee on Notification. Lincoln said, "Boys, I have 
never had a drop of liquor in my life, and I don't want 
to begin now." This part of the entertainment was provided 
for elsewhere. 

Major William H. Crook, who was executive clerk at 
the White House during the administration of Lincoln, said 
regarding Mr. Lincoln's habits. "Never once while he was 
president, did I ever see or hear of Abraham Lincoln's 
drinking one drop of liquor of any kind." 

William O. Stoddard, who was also one of President 
Lincoln's private secretaries, has stated that any liquors 
that were sent to the White House as a compliment to the 
president, were sent by him to the hospitals. In his volume 
entitled, "Inside the White House in War Times," he says 
regarding Mr. Lincoln's social habits: 

"There is nothing of the sort at the White House at 
present, for Mr. Lincoln is strictly abstinent as to all in- 
toxicating drinks. His first printed paper written while a 
mere boy was a vigorous denunciation of the evils produced 
by whisky on the settlers in the back woods of his then own 
state of In^Iiana. We are to dine with him today by special 
invitation, and you will see for yourself that there is no wine 
upon his table, but a large number of newspaper editors will 
tell you afterwards that your eyes deceived you, and that the 
president was much the worse after dinner." 

General Horace Porter, who was on General Grant's stafif 
during the civil war, and afterwards his private secretary, in 
his book entitled "Campaigning with Grant," on page 217, 
gives this interesting stor}' regarding the visit of President 
Lincoln to General Grant at City Point. "General Grant 
said, T hope you are very well, Mr. President.' 
'Yes, I am in very good health,' Mr. Lincoln replied. But I 
don't feel very comfortable after my trip last night on the bay. 
It was rough, and I was considerably shaken up, and my 
stomach has never entirely recovered from the effects.' An 
officer of the party now saw that an opportunity had arisen 
to make this scene the supreme moment of his life in giving 

5 




/ 






^^■''^yCy^^^ ^ cry /a^ ^ /?^-^^ ^/*^ 




(Fac-simile No. i.) 



PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL. 

Springfield, 111., June ii, i860. 
J. Mason Haight, Esq., 
My dear Sir: 

I think it would be improper for me to write or 
say anything to, or for, the public, upon the subject of 
which you inquire. I therefore wish the letter I do write 
to be held as strictly confidential. Having kept house six- 
teen years, and having never held the "cup" to the lips 
of my friends then, my judgment was that I should not, 
in my new position, change my habit in this respect. What 
actually occurred upon the occasion of the committee visitr 
ing me. I think it would be better for others to say. 
Yours respectfully, 

A. LINCOLN. 



him a chance to soothe the digestive organs of the Chief 
Magistrate of the nation. He said, 'Try a glass of 
champagne, Mr. President, that is always a certain cure 
for sea-sickness.' Mr. Lincoln looked at him for a moment, 
his face lighting up with a smile, and then remarked, 'No, 
my friends; I have seen too many fellows sea-sick ashore 
from drinking that very stuff.' " 

The late Vice-President Henry Wilson, in his Centennial 
Volume, refers to the incident of Mr. Lincoln's refusing 
to serve wine to the committee that notified him of his 
nomination. He described Mr. Lincoln's refusal to receive 
a present of champagne from his neighbors, and states that 
Mr. Lincoln uttered these words: "For thirty years I 
have been a temperance man, and I am too old to change." 
Declined Douglas' Offer to Treat. 

Judge Weldon relates how at a meeting at the Circuit 
Court at Bloomington, Illinois, a great crowd had gathered 
to hear Stephen A. Douglas speak in defense of the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska Bill, that Lincoln called upon Douglas at 
the Cloudas House, where he was stopping, and the two 
had a pleasant chat of the old times on the circuit, and 
the progress of the state and its development. After Lin- 
coln had been in the room a short time, Douglas pro- 
posed that they have something, a proposition which Mr. 
Lincoln promptly but courteously declined. "Why, do you 
belong to the temperance society?" asked Douglas. "No, 
I don't belong to any temperance society," replied Lincoln. 
"But I am temperate to this extent, I do not drink at all." 

7 



Dr. Robert H. Browne, author of "Abraham Lincoln 
and the Men of His Time," relates the oft repeated incident 
of Lincoln's showing his great strength by lifting a barrel 
of whisky above his head and taking a drink out of the 
bung-hole, and afterwards spitting the liquor out of his 
mouth; and he relates the following temperance speech 
then given by Lincoln. "My friends, you will do well, and 
the best you can with it, to empty this barrel of liquor 
on the ground as I did from my mouth. As a good 
friend, without counting the distress and wreckage of mind, 
let me advise that, if you wish to remain healthy and strong, 
turn it away from your lips." 

There is also strong evidence that Lincoln was not 
only a total abstainer, but a Prohibitionist. Major J. B. 
Merwin, of Littlefield, Conn., who is still living at this 
writing at a venerable age, gives interesting reminiscences 
of his experiences while campaigning in the state of Illinois 
in the years 1854 and 1855, for the Maine law, he states 
that Abraham Lincoln was his traveling companion and 
lecturer to various towns and cities in Illinois, and gives 
extended extracts from speeches that Lincoln made, that 
space will not permit reproducing here. Later, when the 
Springfield lawyer became President of the United States, 
he commissioned Merwin as a special temperance evangelist 
to the Federal Army. In another column we give a fac- 
simile in Lincoln's own hand writing, of the commission 
that he gave to Mr. Merwin to go anywhere that the 
public service might require. (See fac-simile No. 2.) Also 
another fac-simile of a communication from Lincoln to 
the War Department, bearing the endorsements of Generals 
Winfield Scott and Benjamin F. Butler. (See fac-simile 
No. 3.) 

Major Merwin was in attendance at the great Jubilee 
Convention of the Anti-Saloon League held at Columbus. 
Ohio, in November 1913. and from the platform gave testi- 
mony that Lincoln was not only a total abstainer, but that 
it was in his mind as soon as the public policy would per- 
mit, to engage in a great struggle for ridding America of 
the drink traffic. We give below an extract from the testi- 
mony given by Major Merwin in the presence of upwards 
of 500 people. This extract is taken from the official steno- 
graphic report of the Convention, as reported in the Amer- 
ican Patriot of December 1913. 

"Tn the maturity of his statesmanship and experience — 
in fact, on the afternoon of the day in which Lincoln was 

8 



(Fac-simile No. 2.) 

Order Written by President Lincoln to Facilitate Mr. Mer- 
win's Work of Temperance in the Army. 




Surgeon General will send Mr. Merwin wherever he 
may think the public service may require. 

A. LINCOLN. 

July 24, 1862. 

assa^inated, he said to me as his trusted messenger: 

" 'Merwin, we have cleaned up, with the help of the 
people, a colossal job. Slavery is abolished. After recon- 
struction, the next great question will be. the overthrow 
and abolition of the liquor traffic; and you know,' for I 
had known him since 1852 intimately, 'and you know, Mer- 
win, that my head, and my heart, and my hand, and my 
Pfurse will go into that work. 

" 'In 1842 — less than a quarter of a century ago — I pre- 
dicted, under the influence of God's spirit, that the time 
would come when there would be neither a slave nor a 
drunkard in the land. I have lived to see, thank God, one 
of those prophecies fulfilled. I' hope to see the other re- 
alized^' 

9 



(Fac-simile No. 3.) 

Memorandum written by Mr. Lincoln to the War Depart- 
ment With Endorsements of Commanding Generals 
Favoring Mr. Merwin's Temperance Mission to the 
Army. 






Ao 







-y 















/J^jT^,.^.^^^^--^^'^ , ^<^u^ ^"2 



/^ 






It It be ascertained at the War Department that the 
president has legal authority to make an appointment such 
.as IS asked within, and Gen. Scott is of opinion it will be 
available for good, then let it be done. 

July 17, 1861. 'a. LINCOLN. 

I esteem the mission of Mr. Merwin to this army a 
happy circumstance, and request all commanders to -ive 
him free access to all of our camps and posts, and also to 
multiply occasions to enable him to address our officers 
and men. 

July 24, 1861. WINFIELD SCOTT. 

Department of Virginia. 
The mission of :\.Ir. Merwin will be of great benefit to 
the troops, and I will furnish him with every facility to 
address the troops under my command. I hope the Gen'l. 
commnding the army will give him such official position 
as Mr. Merwin may desire to carry out his object 
Aug. 8th, 1861. 

B. F. BUTLER, Maj.-Gen. Com'd'g. 



"It struck me as so important a statement that I 
said to him: 'Mr. Lincoln, shall I publish this back from 
you?' He instantly replied: 'Yes, publish it as wide as 
the daylight shines.' " 

Mr. Merwin's statement that Lincoln campaigned for 
the Maine law in Illinois in 1855 is confirmed by Mr. A. J. 
Barber, President of the leading bank of Paris, 111., who 
wrote to the Hon. John G. Woolley, a personal friend, as 
well as a friend of Mr. Woolley's father, under date of 
January 14, 1914, his recollection of Lincoln being at the 
Paris House during the court session of 1855, in company 
with Judge Harlan and others; and announcing that he 
had promised Col. Baldwin to make a temperance speech, 
and started to walk to the place of meeting six miles dis- 
tant. This was in the heat of the campaign, Douglas and 
the Democrats generally opposing "Maine Lawism," and 
Whigs and Republicans mostly supporting Prohibition. 

Dr. Howard H. Russell, General Secretary of the Lin- 
coln-Lee Legion, has some very interesting data upon this 
subject, among them several affidavits from old men resid- 
ing in Sangamon county. 111., who stated that they signed 
a temperance pledge at a meeting held by Mr. Lincoln 
at Stony Point School House, in Sangamon county in 

ir 



the year 1847, and the pledge as signed by them is given 
below. 

Whereas, the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage is 
productive of pauperism, degradation and crime; and be- 
lieving it is our duty to discourage that which produ<:es 
more evil than good: we, therefore pledge ourselves 'to 
abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. 

Naturally in a discussion of this character, many apo- 
cryphal and erroneous statements are likely to be made 
public. Among them is an often quoted statement to the 
effect that a delegation waited upon Lincoln objecting to 
General Grant, because of his alleged intemperate habits, 
and that Lincoln in answering them, asked what kind of 
whisky Grant drank, as he would like to send a 
bottle of the same to all of his other generals. There is 
not a scintilla of evidence as to the truthfulness of this 
statement, and it is undoubtedly an invention of the friends 
of whisky. 

Another oft-quoted statement applied to Mr. Lincoln, 
is true in sentiment, but it is improper to give Mr. Lincoln 
the credit for its authorship. It is a statement reading as 
follows: "The liquor traffic is a cancer in society, eating 
out its vital, and threatening destruction, and all attempts 
to regulate it will not only prove abortive, but aggravate 
the evil, etc." This extract is a quotation from an address 
made by the Rev. Dr. John Smith, in the city of Springfield, 
111., on January 23, 1853. Immediately following the ad- 
dress on January 24, 1853, a letter was written to Dr. Smith, 
requesting a copy of the address for publication, and this 
letter was signed by a large number of residents of Spring- 
field, and among them, Abraham Lincoln. While Lincoln 
was not the author of the sentiment, he was, in making 
this request for its publication, an endorser of the same. 
But friends of temperance ought to be careful to give credit 
to the proper source in making their quotations. 

Malicious Forgeries. 

The liquor traffic does not hesitate to indulge in mis- 
representations and will even resort to forgery, as was 
proved in the year 1887, in an agitation in the city of At- 
lanta, Ga. 

During the campaign at Atlanta, Ga., in 1887, which 
resulted in a victory for saloons, the liquor men used with 
success, the name of Lincoln to capture colored votes. 
They had hand-bills prepared, headed, "FOR LIBERTY! 
ABRAH.'XM LINCOL'N'S PROCLAMATION!" l^ndeir- 

12 



neath this was a pictu.e of a negro kneeling and kissin-. 

the President's hand, while near by stood th'e family nd 

on the ground the shackles. Following the picture were 
these words: 

"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of 
temperance It is a species of intemperance within itself 
for It goes beyond the bounds of reason, in that it attempts 
to control a man's appetite by legislation, and in making 
cnmes out of things that are not crimes. A prohibitory 
law strikes a blow at the very principles on which our gov- 
ernment was founded. I have always been found laboring 
to protect the weaker classes from the stronger and I can 
never give my consent to such a law as you 'propose to 
enact. Until my tongue be silenced in death, I will continue 
to hght for the rights of man." 

Then followed this appeal: "Colored voter, he appeals 
to you to protect the liberty he has bestowed upon you 
Will you go back on his advice? Look to vour rights' Read 
and act! Vote for the sale!" 

A copy of this was sent to Hon. John Hay, and Mr 
Nicolay, his private secretaries who were also his biogra- 
phers, and the reply was received as follows from Mr. Hay: 

"Neither Mr. Nicolay nor I have ever come across this 
passage in Mr. Lincoln's works, which we have been sev- 
eral years compiling." 

Nevertheless the liquor press continue to repeat this 
nasty slander with each recurrence of Lincoln's birthday anni- 
versary. It was recently repeated by the Champion of Fair 
Play, a liquor Journal published in the city of Chicago, with 
the accompanying statement, that Lincoln was not only a 
liquor dealer and barkeeper, but a can-rusher as well- and 
the National Model License League, under the management 
of Col. T. M. Gilmore, editor of Bonfort's Wine and Spirit 
Circular, the leading liquor journal of the country, has joined 
in circulating the same malicious slander upon the good 
name and fame of our greatest native American. 

Notwithstanding this overwhelming array of evidence, 
from the mouth and pen of the martyred President him- 
self, from a vice president, from his son, from three pri- 
vate secretaries, from White House attaches, from his law 
partner, from men who knew and worked with him for 
years, and from a long array of biographers who have 
made a careful study of his life and his work, the ghoulish 
liquor traffic will continue to attempt to bolster up their 

13 



fast-dying cause by dragging in the mire the name and the 
fame of one whom all patriotic Americans honor and love. 
There surely ought to be a law that will severely punish 
those who defame and scandalize the good name and reputa- 
tion of the dead, just the same as there is law to protect 
the living, and just as there is a law that will protect the 
bodies of the dead. Were there such a law, the very first 
to come before the tribunal of justice, would be the liquor 
traffic for their oft-repeated defamation of the good name 
of Abraham Lincoln. 



PUBLISHED BY 

AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WESTERVILLE. OHIO. 



14 



POTENT POSTERS PORTRAYING 



-THE- 



SCIENTIFIC EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 

PREPARED BY EXPERTS 

FIFTY SUBJECTS TREATED 

Most of these Posters are illustrated 
many printed ni colors. They are on 
excellent heavy paper, 24x38 inches in 

HANDSOME, EDUCATIONAL, EFFECTIVE 

They describe in a striking wav the effprf« nf ni.^, , 
and muscular de.elopn.eni, sL aid enTl:^ :Tn\ 'T ""'"•' 
ndes assaults, Culd-life, and general socialZeifarl "^""' ""■ 

Send for price list, giving number and title of each Po.t^. 

START A POSTER CAMPAIGN TODAY. 

Price: 20 Cents Each Poster; Or, $5.00 
for the Set of Fifty Posters 

American Issue Publishing Company 
Westerville, Ohio. 



54 W 












,^^ ^^ 












"^ %^ilK** ^^^^^^^^ ""^w** 'J.^^"^ 






























X. ' • 














W?RT 
BOOKBINOINtC 

Jan Feb 1989 









